Mountain View, California — Over the past few months Google has been pushing its location reviews pretty hard. Keeping in-touch with friends and family while using Google Maps on the move just got easier and even better. The search engine giant Google over the weekend has added something pretty significant–the ability for Google Maps users to post ratings and reviews written in Hotpot on Google Places to Twitter from their Android smartphones.
According to the official Google Mobile blog, which has recently unfurled an updated Google Maps version 5.2 for Android-powered handset, with this update, users can leave a review for a location in addition to the option to tweet out a link to it right from the app.
The first significant modification includes enhanced support for check-ins using the Google Latitude service, which tracks your location. If you see friends near your location on a map, you can “ping” them to check-in at your location instead of sending a text message or making a phone call.
It is a speediest way to either ask your friends if they are free for coffee, or to annoy them endlessly. Previously, Google Places enabled sharing recommendations and ratings with hotpot friends only.
This “ping” feature requires both Latitude friends to use version 5.2 of the app. When the right to check into is not shown in the drop-down list, clicking the “Search more places” button will quickly do the needful. This can come in handy if you are in an area that is jam-packed with restaurants or other businesses available for check-ins.
With this new version, anyone can post their ratings and reviews of places like cafés and restaurants directly to their Twitter accounts. For instance, a user rating their dinner at a restaurant or coffee and bagel at a local coffee shop can tweet their review to Twitter.
Previously, users could only share Hotpot recommendations on the Hotpot Website, Place pages and Google.com. Now, this can be done by simply choosing the “Post review to Twitter” option from the rating widget.
While this appears to be a small sharing gesture, it has broader implications. Google is clearly putting a lot of effort into making Hotpot recommendations a success. Location reviews have already crept into the browser-based version of Google Maps, as well as Android and iOS apps. By integrating Twitter to its sharing options, it is hoping to help its users reach any of the almost 200 million Twitter users.
Moreover, promoting the feature with Twitter integration encourages users to spread the word, helping the company establish the service as a viable competitor to better-known rivals like Yelp.
Besides, Twitter is also a place where a lot of small businesses advertise, so when Hotpot users tweets their reviews, it can be considered free advertising for users. This is bound to induce good will among users and businesses alike, provided the reviews are positive.
Google Maps v5.2 is available for free download through the Android Market for devices running on the Android v1.6 OS and later versions.